Illumination assemblies are used in a variety of diverse applications. Traditional illumination assemblies have used lighting sources such as incandescent or fluorescent lights, for example. More recently, other types of light-emitting elements, and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in particular, have been used in illumination assemblies. LEDs have the advantages of small size, long life, and low power consumption. These advantages of LEDs make them useful in many diverse applications.
For many lighting applications, it is desirable to have one or more LEDs supply the required light intensity and/or distribution. For example, several LEDs can be assembled in an array having small dimensions to provide a high illuminance in a small area, or the LEDs can be distributed over a larger area to provide a broader and more uniform illuminance.
LEDs in an array are commonly connected to each other and to other electrical systems by mounting the LEDs onto a printed circuit board substrate. LEDs may be populated onto a substrate using techniques that are common to other areas of electronics manufacturing, e.g., locating components onto circuit board traces, followed by bonding the components to the substrate using one of a number of known technologies, including wave soldering, reflow soldering, and attachment using conductive adhesives.
LEDs simultaneously produce both light and heat and will rapidly accumulate heat around their mounting surface. The heat produced by the LEDs should be quickly removed from the LED apparatus to keep the temperature of the entire LED apparatus from rapidly becoming high. If the heat produced by the LEDs cannot be efficiently dissipated, the accumulated heat may cause unexpected damage to or influence normal operations of other parts adjacent to the LED apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,296,916 discloses an example of an assembly for use with an LED. The illumination assembly includes a thermally conductive substrate, a reflective layer proximate a first major surface of the thermally conductive substrate, a patterned conductive layer positioned between the reflective layer and the first major surface of the thermally conductive substrate and electrically isolated from the thermally conductive substrate, and at least one LED including a post that is attached to the thermally conductive substrate. The at least one LED can be thermally connected to the thermally conductive substrate through the post and electrically connected to the patterned conductive layer.
While these types of assemblies provide adequate electrical and thermal connection, they can be difficult to assemble and costly to produce. It would, therefore, be beneficial to provide an LED assembly which does not require components to be soldered or attached using conductive adhesive. It would also be beneficial to provide an assembly which does not require the use of a printed circuit board or expensive circuitry to make the required electrical connection.